This invention relates to a continuous filtration/separation apparatus used primarily for dehydrating wheat gluten or squeezing a soy sauce or bean milk, though its application is not specifically limited to foodstuffs.
There have heretofore been known continuous treating apparatuses wherein a dehydrating chamber is defined between a feed port for feeding a material to be dehydrated and a take-out port for taking out the dehydrated material and is driven by driving means from the feed port towards the take-out port and the capacity of the dehydrating chamber is gradually diminished so as to continuously dehydrate the material for treatment inside the dehydrating chamber.
These apparatuses may be divided into the following two groups; one such as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 21036/1972 which drives linearly the dehydrating chamber from the feed port to the take-out port and the other such as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 33751/1970 which drives the dehydrating chamber so as to describe a circle.
Among them, the present invention relates to an improvement of the continuous filtration/separation apparatus which drives the dehydrating chamber to describe especially a circle.
An excessive force would be applied to each part of the above-mentioned apparatus if a material having a small liquid content is fed. On the contrary, if a material having an extremely high liquid content is fed, the material discharged from the take-out port is not sufficiently dehydrated. Hence, the inventors of the present invention previously invented an apparatus in which the capacity of the dehydrating chamber is adjustable in order to enable one to adjust the dehydration ratio to a certain extent. This apparatus is known already as Japanese Patent Publication No. 15872/1975. However, if the invention disclosed in this Patent Publication is practised as such, it is not possible to wash the filter cloth while performing the dehydration treatment. The filter cloth must be washed to eliminate clogging and to prevent lowering of the dehydration efficiency.
In addition to the Japanese Patent Publication No. 15872/1975 mentioned above, the inventors of the present invention have also invented the means for adjusting the dehydrating ratio as described in the specification of the Japanese Patent laid-Open No. 29773/1976 and the Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 21473/1977. In the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 29773/1976, the guide means is divided halfway, as viewed from the direction of the caterpillar movement, into two, and these divided guide means are pivoted by pins. The casing near the delivery port is pressed by the spring on the side of the rotor. This construction has the disadvantages that the caterpillar when moving past the dividing point of the casing is subjected to an excessive force. In the Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 21473/1977, the guide means is moved to and from the rotor by means of the crank shaft. According to this construction, the attitude of the crank shaft is difficult to adjust and the guide means will be subjected to a large force so that it would be difficult to secure the crank shaft against undesirable movement.